In April 2021, HCDE hosted a Design-a-Thon for Social Good in which students explored barriers to mental health resources experienced by people in underrepresented communities.

One in six Americans suffers from a diagnosable, treatable mental health condition. Minority groups are more likely to experience the risk factors that can cause such mental health disorders. Despite the existence of effective treatments, disparities lie in the availability, accessibility, and quality of mental health services for racial and ethnic minorities. LGBTQIA+ people are at particular risk for experiencing shame, fear, discrimination, and adverse and traumatic events.

In HCDE’s Design-a-Thon for Social Good, facilitated by Liz Juhnke, Principal Experience Designer at Boeing, students designed solutions for problems that the traditionally underrepresented face when accessing mental health resources. The students used the user-centered design process to create medium-fidelity prototypes and presented their concepts at the end of the event.

Judges from academia and industry scored the student teams based on the following criteria: how well design solves an identified problem; how well the design includes principles of equity; How inclusive the concept is; and overall usability. Judges included Steven Wakabayashi, founder of QTBIPOC Design; Jeremy Barksdale, Bellevue City Councilmember and User Experience Researcher at Unity; Emily Lin, Senior Director of Community Strategy at nFocus; Julie Kientz, Professor and Chair of HCDE; and Abigale Stangl, a post-doctoral researcher in HCDE working at the intersection of human-computer interaction and accessibility. 

Winning teams received the opportunity to meet with a senior designer at Facebook Reality Labs, whose work focuses on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Find the team presentations and prototype demonstrations below.

WINNING TEAMS

HONORABLE MENTION AWARDEES:

The Design-a-Thon for Social Good was produced with support from HCDE's DEI Mini-Grant program.